Former: Sandblasted Apple Tobacco Pipe

More than any other shape, the Apple dominates Hans "Former" Nielsen's portfolio. He's mastered the shape and rendered it countless times in myriad renditions, with his signature, rusticated examples among his most prolific. His Apple iterations embody classic Danish design cues — clean lines, supple curves, and an elegant minimalism — and they embody Former's decades of experience in the craft, having come to pipe making at an early age, studying classic shapes and styles through repairs and restorations, working for and eventually managing the famed W.Ø. Larsen, supervising a workshop in Germany, and finally returning to Denmark to fashion pipes under his own name at his home studio. Few have excelled at the craft longer than Former, and his work represents some of the best available in the world.

This particular Apple resembles one we received previously, and it's a slight departure from his signature example. While those are often more compact and balanced of proportions, this design displays a sleek, Lovat-like shank and stem whose slender nature lend prominence to the bulbous bowl. The profile's streamlined aspect poises the bowl with the effect of it being perched on the end as the rounded flanks inflate upward from the transition. Said bowl is nearly spherical, with equal tapers above and below, and the implied continuation of those lines through the surrounding negative space render a near-perfect circle. As such, this pipe offers a substantial and ergonomic fit in hand, conforming well to wrapped fingers, and the aerodynamic dynamism of the elongated shank and abbreviate saddle stem of hand-cut vulcanite contrasts strikingly against the bowl's comparativly muscular demeanor. It's all dressed in a craggy sandblast that highlights beautiful growth rings, while the palette remains conservative — the smooth, ruby-tinged finish of the inflated rim offering the only hint of contrast in typical Danish fashion.